Modern
How Barbarian and Palace Software's legacy lives on in modern ports and fan projects.
Barbarian+ (2018)
Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior - Modernised
Barbarian+ was released in 2018 as a modernised version of the original Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior. The port updates the game for contemporary systems while preserving the core gameplay - the sixteen moves, the joystick-based combat, and the fundamental one-on-one sword-fighting experience that made the original so compelling.
Barbarian+ demonstrates the enduring commercial appeal of the original title more than three decades after its 1987 release. That a modernised port found an audience in 2018 speaks to the quality of the underlying game design - stripped of the controversy and nostalgia, the core fighting mechanics remain playable and satisfying.
Fan-Made Atari Port (Announced 2026)
As of 2026, a fan-made Atari port of Barbarian has been announced. The retro homebrew community continues to produce new ports of classic titles for vintage hardware - Atari 8-bit and ST platforms among the most active targets.
Details on this project remain limited at the time of publication. The project represents the ongoing vitality of the Palace Software community and the continued interest in bringing Barbarian to hardware platforms that received ports in the 1980s but may not have had the definitive experience the modern homebrew scene can now deliver.
Spiritual Successors
No game has directly continued the Palace Software lineage in official form since the Titus acquisition in 1991. However, Barbarian's influence is visible throughout the history of British game development:
- One-on-one sword fighting games - Barbarian's fighting engine and move set predated the fighting game boom of the early 1990s. Games like Blade of Darkness and later action-RPGs owe something to Barbarian's physicality.
- Retro indie fighters - The 2010s and 2020s saw a wave of retro-styled indie fighting games drawing on the aesthetics of 8-bit and 16-bit combat games, including the one-on-one format that Barbarian helped establish.
- Richard Joseph's legacy - Palace Software's music lives on through Richard Joseph's wider career. His work for Bitmap Brothers, Sensible Software, and others extends the Palace-era musical vocabulary into the 1990s. Richard Joseph fan site →